Federal and municipal governments now own just about everything of value in America, such as roads, land, buildings and labor. Anything that is taxed (including fees) is owned by the government.

Take for example, your home.
You paid either the builder or the previous owner a sum equal to the fair market value of that home. If you did not also pay fees and taxes on that sale, the use of that property would not have been transferred to you, thanks to the government. During the lifetime of your exclusive use of that property, annual taxes are imposed on you by the government for your continued use of that property. If you should fail to pay those taxes to the government, the government is free to take back exclusive use of that property and resell that use to another person. You have no recourse.

Take for example, your labor.
The government owns your labor to the extent that if you fail to pay the government a portion of your wages, the government not only can force your employer to pay them directly, but can seize whatever assets you control to make up the difference. If you continue to not pay the government for the privilege of working, you will lose not only your wages, but your liberty as they will certainly incarcerate you as punishment.

Take for example, the roads.
The government takes part of your purchase price of gasoline in exchange for your ability to use your motor vehicle upon them. If you do not pay the government for the privilege of using the roads, you are reduced to walking. Electric cars, bicycles and public transportation each have their own sets of payment to the government.

Take for example, your business.
The government has devised numerous aspects of your business, the use of which require you to pay the government in order to continue to operate your business. Failure to pay the government for any of those uses will result in the government taking away your business and even your liberty.

So it goes at every turn. The government has hundreds, if not thousands of pay-to-play schemes to take your money, and take your assets and liberty if you choose to not pay. If you owned the assets and labor you think you own, the government couldn’t take them away from you. The government does own them and can take away your use of any of them anytime you stop paying them for the use of them.

The government is the ultimate owner of not only all of America’s means of production, but also the labor, land and buildings.

“The push for rail is not about relieving congestion or getting people from point A to point B, but is rather about developing high-density communities that qualify for HUD affordable housing grants, EPA grants for supposedly improving air quality, Department of Transportation funds for mass transit, and Department of Energy grants for supposedly reducing dependence on oil”

Hillsborough taxpayers paid many tens of thousands of dollars on County economic development studies to determine which specific industries should be targeted in order to create local high-paying jobs.

If Bass Pro Shops determined that it would be profitable for them to locate in Tampa, they would, with no incentives.

What happened to Hagan’s Economic Development Task Force recommendation that Hillsborough County incentivize only bio-tech, medical, manufacturing and high-tech businesses?

Adding “destination-retail” to the list to include Bass Pro ignores that few people south of Sarasota or east of Lakeland are likely to visit a Tampa store, with existing stores in Ft. Myers and Orlando; and none of them will stay overnight just to shop here.

It ignores that most jobs will be low-wage, part-time and no-benefit.

The County’s math calculates that taxpayers will be repaid in five years, but there seems to be no calculations as to how many existing mom and pop sporting goods business will fall off the tax rolls as a result.

Selling bonds to pay for road construction is like charging home remolding to your credit card.

You get what you want now without waiting and you pay it back with future earnings; but the interest payments reduce your spendable income.

As we’ve seen with reduced county income from property and sales taxes, painful budget cuts have to come from somewhere else.

Hillsborough County is already nearly a BILLION dollars in debt in bond obligations, with crippling interest payments.

Apart from the get-it-now-pay-for-it-later fantasy world we get to live in, who benefits from municipal bonding?

There are the attorneys who actually create the tax-free bonds that are sold by brokers to investors who re-sell them to someone looking for somewhere better than a bank to park their excess money.

Everyone along the line makes a profit, with the end bondholder receiving taxpayer money with no obligation to pay any income taxes.

Perhaps instead of borrowing money to pay for new roads out to the hinterlands, we should give incentives to employers who build businesses near where people live, and incentives for home builders who build near employment centers?

That way, as we learn to pay as we go, we could also pay off the County debt and use the saved interest payments for something useful, like more buses that run on solar and clean natural gas.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan is batting zero in his attempts at hitting a task force home run.

His Transportation Task Force was formed to recommend a Choo-Choo for Tampa.

His I-4 Task Force was formed to recommend paving over east county farmlands at taxpayer expense.

His Economic Development Taskforce was formed to recommend tax breaks for Bass Pro Shop.

Now he wants an Economic Prosperity Stakeholders Task Force formed to recommend taxpayers footing the bills for new roads, sewers, water, and fire and police services in order to “attract new business”.

All these task forces have simply cost taxpayers a ton of money in outside consultants’ fees.

To paraphrases a line from the movie Blazing Saddles: “We don’t need no stinking task forces.”

Commissioner Sandra Murman didn’t need a task force to start a very successful incentive program to encourage the actual creation of new jobs.

But then maybe we should save Hagan the time, expense and embarrassment of another failed task force and just give him a walk on this one?

After all, according to Hagan, with all the tax and fee cuts already approved by the BOCC over the past few years, The County isn’t bringing in much money from new businesses anyway, so what’s to lose?

Did Mike Sasso (Tampa Tribune Jan. 23, 2012) ask San Diego Metropolitan Transit what it did to their budget when the Padres moved from the mixed-use QUALCOMM stadium they shared with the Chargers, to a new ballpark in downtown San Diego?

And…the Chargers are still talking about also moving out; leaving that stadium mostly unused, but with a terrific, light-rail station.

Maybe the seven West Central Florida counties that make up the focus of TBARTA’s Master Plan should get together with The Rays to determine the most economically advantageous location FOR EVERYONE for a new ballpark?

U.S. 41, 19 and 301 are looking pretty good, and there is lots of cheap land available. People commute on I-75, 275 and 589, but they don’t live, shop, work or go to school there.

Forget I-4, (not a true “interstate” anyway) which is only good for trips to visit The Mouse.